The shocking image shows what appears to be a mother taking a picture of her children sitting on the track rails. It was captured at Matlock Bath station and was just one of eight incidents captured at that station in one day.

Railway-related deaths reached a record high last year with 332 deaths recorded between 2014/15. Of those, 10 were involved in level crossings with two drivers among those dead.

Network Rail currently has over 6,000 level crossings in use, the company considers them a throwback from the Victorian era when trains were less frequent and considerably slower.

The company readily admits that if it had built the railways today it would not use level crossings at all.